


Fate Takes You By The Hand

by KotsBlins



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Characters and Tags Added as they Appear, Gen, Novelization, rating and warnings may change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2020-04-05 06:42:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19043233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KotsBlins/pseuds/KotsBlins
Summary: His name was Kai. He was a blacksmith-in-training in what amounted to the middle of nowhere. His hair was a mess. His sister was Nya, and he would protect her from anything. One day, everything changes. (hiatus until i regain inspiration)





	1. Inordinate Calm

**Author's Note:**

> hello everyone. this is kotsblins, and i am here to write things. i'm going to novelize and expand the pilot episodes. even 44 minutes can be a very long process, it turns out. i hope you like what i'm doing - comments are appreciated and welcomed (supportive, suggestive, and criticizing). things probably won't be completely canonically accurate to the whole 11 season continuity. this won't be an exact mirror image of the pilot episodes, only based off of them and sharing some dialogue.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it's almost as if nothing ever happens around here

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> edited for clarity, flow, and em dashes 12/8/19

It was late afternoon in this part of Ninjago, the sun tinting the sky a soft orange shade. Clouds stretched across the sky, feathery and translucent. There would be a few more minutes before the sun slipped below the horizon. Rice paddies flanked a crumbling cobblestone path, farmers kneeling in the semi-stagnant water to tend to the growing plants. The sun's light reflected off the shallow water, glittering like a shiny piece of metal. The farmers' conical hats dipped and bobbed with their footsteps, water sloshing around with their movements. Maple trees shaded the road, soft red leaves whispering in the breeze.

The sprawl and development of coastal Ninjago had not penetrated this far inland, leaving the area quiet and peaceful. Ninjago City, the largest city on the continent, had reliable electricity and gleaming metal buildings. This neck of the woods had jagged, sun-beaten utility poles and occasional blackouts. The grass wasn't manicured, and wild plants grew from the edges of scattered boulders. Green moss gathered between the cobblestones of the road. Many small villages existed like this, linked to the big city by the thin thread that was the power lines. They existed in symbiosis — the countryside provided the food, while the city provided the power. If one were to fail, both would. But few people thought to venture from either their hamlets or their apartment complexes. In that way, Ninjago was divided. Metropolitan elites were obnoxious; country bumpkins were uneducated. Neither group cared all that much to reconcile their differences.

An old man walked slowly down the road, his bamboo staff knocking against the ground with every other step. His white beard hung long, and he wore a hat similar to the rice farmers. One of the farmers took a quick look at him, glancing at the hat and the face, but then at the odd clothing.

 _Not from around here, are you?_ Her own personal judgment did not matter as much as the rice, though. The farmer returned to her work, checking the plants for any insects or otherwise. They were a lot more important than wondering about any city person that had managed to get themselves all the way out here.

One of the biggest signs of the cultural divide between Ninjago City and the rest of the world, though, was the loud and proud presence of blacksmithery. The skill and the occupation altogether had retired from urban use. Out here, it was necessary. The piercing sound of hammer against metal echoed through the valley. Upon a tall hill sat the blacksmith's shop, overseeing all the rice paddies. The old man paused to stare at the building, thinking, before continuing on. Next to the blacksmith, a squat water tower stood like a sentry. Similar to the rest of the countryside, it was quite rustic. That was a polite way to phrase it. 

The old man approached the shop. He stopped again, only for a moment, to glance at the sign above the main entrance. Two figures, small from a distance, moved around inside the shop. With every stride closer, the clatter of metal on metal increased in volume.

 

* * *

 

The hammer struck one last time on the cooling metal of the blade. The metal was still red-hot, no doubt about that, but it was no longer molten. The man — the boy, really — stared at the blade. His expression was a mix of determination and focus. "To forge the perfect weapon, you first need the right metal and plenty of heat." His calm expression split into an overconfident grin.

"Cool it off..." In a single move, he thrust it into the waiting bucket of lukewarm water. Immediately, the water shot up to a violently rolling boil, spitting scalding water at him. The majority of the water splattered against the thick leather apron he was wearing, but a few droplets struck his face. He clenched his teeth together, flinching. The heat stung, but he had gotten used to it.

A few seconds passed. "And...presto!" He pulled out the blade from the water, expecting something completely different from what he received. Instead of a sword, he pulled out a bent and twisted hunk of metal. A complete, total, irrevocable failure.

"Aw...come on!" He swore under his breath. The sword was an oversized corkscrew; not straight at all. Swords should be straight! Maybe if someone had a huge bottle of wine, then it would be useful. Other than that, it was scrap. He tilted his head, eyeing the blade in disapproval.

The other person in the shop giggled lightly, covering her mouth with her hand. Her brown eyes, rich and deep like a cup of coffee, sparkled with amusement. "You made it too quickly, Kai. You've got to be patient with this. If...if Father was still here, he'd tell you—"

She was sharply cut off by her brother, who looked annoyed. "Yeah, I know, I know. No matter how much fire you have, experience isn't something you learn overnight. He said that a lot. That might work for you, Nya, but I'm gonna be different. I'll be a better blacksmith than Dad ever was. It takes more than learning things, there's more to it."

Kai stared into the now very warm bucket of water, watching his blurry reflection stare back. His eyes shared the same color with his sister, that same deep brown. Unsurprisingly, his hair was a spiky mess, sticking out in multiple directions. However, Kai wasn't concerned with appearances, at least not right now. He muttered to himself — just above a whisper — but still too quiet for Nya to hear. "I'm not just gonna be better than Dad...I'll the greatest blacksmith in all of Ninjago. Just you wait."

"What was that, Kai?"

"Oh, nothing." He set the ruined sword aside on a table. _If I want to be the best blacksmith, I've really got a long way to go. At least, I need to forge a usable weapon._ Kai returned from his thoughts to see an old man approaching the store. He walked slowly but surely, clutching a staff in his one hand. "Hey, Nya, we've got a customer!"

She turned around, watching the man who was examining the store's wares. He had no use for anything here. Maybe for a grandson? Grandpas were supposed to drink tea, ruminate mysteriously, and complain about young people. Grandpas didn't fight.

 

* * *

 

He took a quick glance at the weapons in the shop. None of them were bad, per se, except that twisted sword in the back. That one was horrific. It was funny how bad the sword looked — almost as if it had been ruined on purpose. However, none of the weapons in the shop were good either. All of them hovered in a range between mediocre and barely passable.

He then eyed the two siblings for a moment. The girl was younger, with short black hair cut just above her shoulders. She definitely looked a lot more friendly than her brother, who was scowling moodily in the corner.

The old man returned to the weapons and armor, examining a piece near the entrance. "Your metal is loud and heavy...useful to slow one down. Useless in the art of stealth." He hit a set of armor with his staff, knocking a helmet askew. It clanked angrily. "All tools for a samurai, but nothing for a ninja?"

"Ninja?" Kai laughed to himself, stretching his arms above his head for a moment. He was sore, and it was aggravating. The so-called sword that sat on the table in the back like an abandoned child was also aggravating. Kai wasn't having the best day if it wasn't obvious before. "You're a real long way from finding anything close to a ninja here, old man." The old man continued to wander around the store, turning over blades and tapping on spears. _Maybe his mind's going,_ Kai thought. _While that's tragic and all, he's beginning to get annoying. Everything he says is just really harsh. Plus, it's bad for business._

Kai narrowed his eyes, beginning to herd the man out of the store with his body. "Hey, old guy! By the way, this store's called Four Weapons, not for browsing. Either buy something or go peddle your insults somewhere else."

"Ah well, too bad. Thought I'd find something special." The old man turned around with agility not too common at his age, and departed, walking down the same path he had arrived from.

Nya glared at Kai. She pointed forcefully towards the very back of the store, where the actual quality weapons were. Spears that glittered in the sun, swords that glistened like ice — Kai had created absolutely none of them. He nodded weakly with a wobbly smile and leapt for a particularly pretty dagger.

"Hey, hey, if it's something special you're after, let me show you—"

The old man had disappeared. Completely. He could have sprouted wings, or climbed into a secret tunnel. Perhaps he had died, which would be a horrific tragedy. Wherever he had gone, he was gone.

"What?" Nya turned, staring in confusion. When she understood, she shook her head with an amused sigh.

"He was just there, Nya...and then — you know what, forget it. It doesn't matter."

The two of them stood for a moment, wondering what exactly had just happened, and then shrugged in synchronicity. "We'll always get another customer." Nya said mildly, before noticing the state of the sky. Previously, it had been a balmy orange shade, with a few wispy clouds. The sky had suddenly filled with heavy black clouds, ones that were like dripping tar. A bright flash of light preceded a violent rumble, a rumble that shook the very ground they stood on. "That thunderstorm sure showed up out of nowhere, Kai. Looks like a bad one, too. Let's get everything put away."

Kai had only just collected the display weapons outside into his arms. He ended up dropping them all on the ground when someone screamed. The scream was loud, and chock-full of heart-stopping fear.

"Hey! You okay down there?!" Kai yelled back even louder, returning the favor. Hopefully, they could hear his voice all the way down the hill. 

"S-skeletons! There's skeletons, and—" The voice of the middle-aged woman fell into another wail of fright.

"Skeletons?" Kai's face twisted into an expression of slightly amused, very confused concern. "What does she mean skeletons? Can anyone help me here? Nya? I'm not stupid, am I? Wait, don't answer that."

Nya wasn't listening to Kai at all. In fact, she was completely ignoring his ramblings as she watched the farmers jump from the paddies and run away screaming. From the distance of the blacksmith shop, it was like watching ants flee a magnifying glass.

She squinted, focusing on the scene and then taking a few cautious steps forward. A gigantic vehicle leapt over the hill leading to the rice, followed by a group of motorcycles. The riders and drivers were cast from pale bone, with gleaming red eyes. Every single one clutched a weapon, from swords to spears to a sharpened femur. The leading vehicle, a truck, had a skull attached to the front. The skull had quite sharp teeth, and looked hungry for blood — the jaw agape and showing off foot-long canines. Oversize ribs made up the cab of the truck, which contained three skeletons. Armed and dangerous skeletons — skeletons! — were sitting in the cab of a truck made from bones. Nya did a double take, before realizing that it was real. Every skeleton and skeletal vehicle present in the group were ready to rumble, with rumble meaning to raid the blacksmith shop and nearby village. The entire group had paused on the crest of the hill overlooking the farming valley, seemingly observing the crowds of people fleeing in fear. 

"Kai...they're..."

"Oh. Those skeletons. Over there."


	2. Calcium Hydroxyapatite

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a spooky skeleton's thesis, things get exciting
> 
> edited for clarity, flow, and em dashes 12/8/19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i unintentionally went sicko mode, here's a long chapter - apologies in advance.

Once upon a time, someone had decided that skeletons would be one of the primary characters within childhood scary stories. Their descriptions were chilling and sharp, at least to young kids. After all, who would wish a fiery-eyed skeletal warrior on their enemy? One that wielded weapons crafted from their fallen comrades, and possessed centuries of undead fighting knowledge? Even the toughest schoolyard bully wouldn't sic a skeleton on you, for fear of their own welfare.

Those silly skeletons were simply another of Ninjago's cloudy and obscure myths. The ones on display in museums — written about in fading, dated scrolls. Undead, bony raiders were fiction, meticulously crafted by parents who didn't want their children digging around in graveyards. That had always been the standard — that myths and stories did not cross the border into reality.

Some had different beliefs, however — that even the most outlandish of stories contained a kernel of truth.

 

* * *

 

A bright spotlight mounted behind the three skeletons on the truck illuminated them like shadow puppets. All you could see were their silhouettes and their eyes. A small bone was mounted on the front as a hood ornament.

The truck's oversize engine shook the rest of the vehicle terribly, but the excessive horsepower was the only way to operate the tires and the claw simultaneously. Yes, the claw. The truck had a claw, in the shape of a skeletal hand. From the wrist of the hand dangled a metal chain, which presumably would help bring back the claw with whatever it had grabbed. There wasn't a person in all of Ninjago who had thought to add a claw to a truck — apparently, skeletons were required for such an innovation. 

Of the three skeletons who were hanging out in the cab, the one in the middle was the most threatening. A rough, jagged scar was drawn long across his face, falling through his nose and jaw. He had a sinister expression, smiling grimly at the distant screams of the farmers. He also had four arms, which was complete overkill — he was already scary enough.

"Oh, let me go first! Please, oh please! I'm dyin' to go down there!" The skeleton to his left, one of his two trusted subordinates, whined loudly. He had a row of spikes similar to a mohawk across his head. One of his empty eye sockets hid under metal plating. His name was Nuckal, and he was a knucklehead — exactly like his name implied.

"You nitwit, you're already dead! Try to control yourself in front of Master Samukai! Uh...with all due respect, you did say that I could go first..." His companion, and Samukai's other direct subordinate, was Kruncha. Kruncha was the more logical of the two, wearing a protective helmet instead of just fashionable spikes. He was missing a tooth, and had an incredibly fractured jaw — which he took a certain amount of pride in. Whether or not either of Samukai's trusted subordinates were intelligent or capable, they had certainly been through some battles.

"Sorry boys, this one is mine. Just remember what we're after — find that map!" Samukai raised one of his daggers, and motioned towards the blacksmith shop with it. "Attack!" he roared, gunning the engine of his truck. Stones and dust sprayed from the vehicle's back wheels as the entire group charged down the hill. The group of motorcycle riders quickly outpaced the truck — two skeletons to a lightweight, fast bike. There were at least ten motorcycles. On the bikes, an unidentified animal skull sat where the headlights should have been. Instead, light lanced out of the skull's eye sockets. The modification wasn't street legal. Scrambling to hide behind rocks and trees, the few farmers that hadn't already evacuated the area got out of dodge.

Nuckal watched the farmers run off in confusion. "Uh...the farmers are already gone. There's no point in attacking somewhere empty—"

Kruncha groaned in annoyance, cutting off Nuckal's complaint. "You idiot! We don't care about the farmers. We want the map, remember! Master Samukai said it five seconds ago! You really are a bonehead."

"Boys, come on. Settle down. Settle down!"

Samukai clocked Nuckal over the head with the hilt of one of his daggers, and it sounded like he had struck a xylophone instead. "Ow..." The spiked skeleton whimpered before huffily crossing his arms.

"Actually, on second thought, let's have some fun!" Samukai laughed, before sharply turning the steering wheel to the left. The truck skidded through the rice fields, ruining the crops and leaving jagged tire treads in the soil. Samukai spun the truck violently, turning in a full circle in the mud. His two unfortunate passengers hung on as tight as they possibly could.

Samukai slammed on the brakes, leaving deep trenches leading up to where the truck had halted. "Isn't that unfortunate, Kruncha? Someone's gone and destroyed their rice. What if they need it to live, or something pitiful like that?" Kruncha and Nuckal nodded mutely, still clutching onto any free piece of the truck to stay inside. Tall stalks of rice had been pressed into the ground, or ripped completely from it. The wheels spun aimlessly for a few seconds before regaining traction in the loam, dragging the three skeletons and their monstrous truck back out of the water.

The motorcycles had already arrived at the shop. As the riders dismounted from their bikes, they raised their weapons in their clawlike, skeletal hands.

 

* * *

 

The air had dropped ten degrees, from balmy to brisk — the chill swam in the air and curled in the breeze. The two siblings were in shock. Nya unconsciously began to nudge behind her taller, broader brother, retreating from where she had previously stood. She quietly took a weapon leaning against the wall — an old, sturdy staff. Nya clutched it tightly, like a stuffed animal.

"They're...they're skeletons, Kai. Like in the stories."

"Yeah, that's what it looks like. But — I don't know, Nya." Kai placed a hand on his sister's shoulder, imparting all the gentle force he could into his voice. "Please, stay here." Kai cast one look back at Nya, her face stuck in his mind as a timeless expression of fear. He knew he would never forget it. Her eyes were wide and her face was ashen, with her mouth slightly ajar in disbelief. Nya's lips were too red and her teeth were too white, too perfect compared to the chaotic world surrounding them. She had slid down against the wood-paneled wall, her head just below a scarred work table.

Kai hoisted up a set of armor — the armor the old man said had been for a samurai — and slid into it. The heavy plates settled around his chest, covering his shoulders and jutting out around his waist. The plates were made of iron, scrapes and dents in the metal left from previous battles. Next came the helmet, made of the same cast iron. Kai set it on his head, and it fit awkwardly. He tied the two dangling leather straps attached to the helmet below his jaw, to make sure it wouldn't fall off. Kai felt like he was balancing a box on his head.

Quickly, he stood on his tiptoes to unhook the sword mounted on the wall. Shiny and gleaming with a brassy hilt, the weapon looked threatening enough. However, it wasn't thin and light like a katana. It was heavy, just like the rest of his outfit. There was an inner serrated edge that looked better suited to felling a tree, and the rest was just sharp.

It was what he had, and that would have to do.

The air was full of acrid smoke from the exhaust and burnt rubber of the motorcycles. It was like a bomb had gone off except for the lack of shrapnel or physical damage. The truck parked itself in front of the shop, leaving ruts in the dirt.

Two of the three skeletons on board in the front jumped off immediately and made their way towards the shop entrance. Kai made his mind up to confront them first, since they would end up being the closest to Nya, but he was rudely interrupted by someone else. A skeleton warrior had snuck up on him. A skeleton warrior which mirrored exactly the ones in the stories. _Nya was right._ The eyes were a fiery red, like molten rock — and it wielded a bone. The bone, large and heavy, met the sword he was wielding with a fierce crack.

Kai sloppily parried the blow, before jumping to the right to avoid the bone hitting him in the head. Even if he was wearing what looked like adequate protection — the helmet and a complete set of armor — it was more heavy than functional. Plus, the bone was a lot stronger than Kai had expected.

Realistically, a bone would have snapped in two on the first contact with the sword's edge. However, it had not done that. Kai charged forward, swinging his sword in a wide arc. It made a dull thunk against the bone. The skeleton was forced back with the impact of the blow from Kai's sword. If it had been alive, it probably would have felt the blow's power radiate up its arms.

"Come on," Kai panted, already beginning to feel the heaviness of the armor he had thrown on. "Get outta here already," The skeleton rushed him again, wielding its bone like a bat. Kai dove to the side, and the skeleton swung, missed, and tripped over itself — sprawling into the dirt.

Immediately he was met with another one, this time wielding an axe. As the axe collided with his sword, coming a bit too close to his body, he realized the axe was made out of what seemed to be part of a hip bone. Actually, that was exactly what it was. Kai laughed nervously, before shoving his bodyweight forward — giving himself a few seconds of reaction time.

The skeleton flailed backwards before recovering. _Man, those stories,_ Kai thought to himself. _Nice to know that they're actually real._ Instead of the hip shattering as he swung his sword directly at the axe, like it should have done, it acted just like metal. At this point that wasn't surprising. In fact, the axe acted like metal of higher quality than what made up the blade of his sword. The sword bounced right off the axe. The axe skeleton giggled raspily, before leaping away — letting Kai stumble backward with the combined weight of his blade and armor.

The skeleton now was outright laughing at him, leaning on its axe and waiting for him to recover. _So that's what you like, huh? I'm done with this. Not gonna let this dead guy laugh at me for being alive._ Kai thought, before attempting to steady himself. He had to focus before he could return the favor to the skeleton — laugh at it for being dead. Kai shut his eyes for a moment, hoping to regain at least some concentration.

Instead, his mind flashed back to Nya, and her face. She was scared, and her eyes had managed to paralyze Kai with a sudden throb of guilt. _She was the younger sister, he was supposed to take care of her. She wasn't supposed to manage the blacksmith all on her own and wait for him to become good at forging weapons. She wasn't supposed to sell all his mediocre work, and help him scrap and reuse the rest. It wasn't supposed to be like this. And skeletons_ — "Skeletons," he hissed lowly, "are supposed to stay dead!"

A jittery feeling rushed through his veins, one that was excitement and fear combined — but mostly fear. But it was fiery fear, not frigid fear. Kai wanted to fight, not run. His arm flew back — sword in tow. With an exhale of breath asking for his gamble to go right, Kai threw the sword with as much force as he possibly could. The sword spun through the air, rotating point to pommel. The chance of success for this maneuver was a coin flip. Fifty-fifty either way. In his mind, the coin spun suspended in midair, flashing in some ethereal light — and finally landed with a bright clatter on some mental table.

_Heads._

The axe skeleton caught on too late, too slow, and the blade lodged into its skull with a crack that was loud as thunder to Kai. He had done it. _He had done it!_ The eyes of the skeleton went out like someone had pulled a plug from the wall. It fell to its knees, and then face first to the ground.

Kai ran to retrieve his sword, pulling it from the skull like a sword from the stone. It was freed easily, the skull snapping into three fractured pieces. The skeleton's death had actually resulted in all the bones disconnecting from each other — it was no longer an enemy, just a pile of parts.

Then, something tapped him on the back of the leg.

He spun around to see a hopping head nipping at his ankles. There was a skull on the ground, bouncing up and down, trying to eat his foot. It wasn't even a skeleton laying there, but just a skull. A skull. Something in his head snapped at that moment — a connection with what had once been his established reality was severed. In Kai's mind everything was going completely insane and this — yes, this — was the last straw.

His boot met fast and hard with the jaw of the head of the headless skeleton. Kai punted it upwards, and it flew in a large arc, like a shooting star, up and over the roof of the blacksmith. Kai assumed it had a rough landing, as the skeleton that had earlier tried to concuss him with a bone immediately collapsed into a pile. Apparently skeletons were allowed to remove their heads by choice, use them as mobile weaponry, and then put them back on if given the opportunity

"Okay, guess I'm fighting skeletons then," he muttered. Sweat trickled down his face — he was wet like it had just downpoured. His breath came hot and quick.

Kai heard low, gritty laughter. He swiveled, sword already swinging wide, to see another skeleton. This one too held a bone — sharpened instead of dull. Gashes in the side of the bone were similar to tally marks — this skeleton was counting something. There was a long, shaky gash horizontal across the skull, near where a person's eyes would have been. This skeleton had died in a horrible, terrible, disgusting, disfiguring way.

Kai's sword immediately met with the point of the bone. He almost was bowled over when the skeleton pushed back. This one was stronger than anything he had ever fought before, and loss was not an option. When the skeleton lashed at him again with the point of the bone, he barely blocked it, arms shuddering as he struggled to stay strong. However the skeleton had died, it wanted to give Kai the same experience.

Instead of messing with Kai at close range, the skeleton jumped away from him, before hurling the bone right at his face. He ducked, narrowly missing the point that would have embedded right into his forehead. The bone clattered off of his helmet, and fell to the ground.

Hysteria flooded his mind. His heartbeat thundered in his ears, fast and loud. He jumped back unsteadily, boots scraping on gravel. _Too close! Way, way too close._

“Missed me,” he finally spat out, gasping. The skeleton wasn’t intimidated in the slightest, cackling loudly, before lunging forward to swipe at his face.

The fingers of the skeleton were sharp, brittle, and bony. The tips of the fingers split his cheek open, leaving a line of bright red to slowly trickle down.

“Too bad I didn’t get to more of your pretty face,” the skeleton hissed, teeth clacking in what would have been a laugh if it was still alive. 

Kai recoiled, staring in disgust and fear. “Sicko,” he muttered. This was the first skeleton that had landed a blow on him, which was a bad thing. Those other skeletons had been easier — this guy was a murderous lunatic whose main intent was to murder him like a lunatic.

“Come on, just let me get a little bit closer,” the skeleton crooned, having picked up its bone from the ground. It spun the bone around tauntingly, playing with it like a toy.

Strangely, the bone was stained a reddish-brown around the point — and then, the pieces suddenly snapped together. Kai swallowed nervously, his mouth going completely dry. _That's blood. That is blood. What do I do? What am I supposed to do?_ Kai's mind yelled at him to do something, to do anything at all. The skeleton leapt towards him with its spear, aiming for his throat.

The world seemed to spin in slow motion. The triumphant hiss of the skeleton was the sound of a soft breeze. Every little pebble and stone dislodged from the ground by the fighting landed quietly, bouncing to a stop.

“No?” he said to himself, eyes trained completely on the charging skeleton, ignorant of the world spinning around him. As much as his words sounded like a tentative question, they were a statement. Nya flashed in his mind, again. Her warm eyes, frozen cold with fear.

 _Where was she?_ Kai remembered. _I told her to stay. I should have told her to run._

Kai fell to his knees hard, driving them into the dirt. Seconds passed like hours, and he waited. Some instinct had grabbed hold of his mind and body, forcing him to comply. The skeleton soared over him by a thin margin, bone spear scraping across the helmet of his heavy armor with an ear-splitting screech.

Surprised that it had missed, still in the air, the skeleton looked down to see him stand. Kai's eyes were smouldering like a dying fire. He jumped up, colliding with the soaring skeleton in midair — and drove his sword into its pale, scarred skull. The bones quickly went limp, falling with a clatter. The skull had shattered completely — now resembling flecks of eggshell. There were sharp fragments everywhere. Kai collapsed on his back, gasping for breath. He was alive and it was dead, a much better resolution.

“How dare you!” The skeleton’s last words faded into the air.

Exhausted, Kai pushed himself up, taking in the small army of skeletons that surrounded him. He wiped at his cheek, which only ended up smearing blood all over his face. Four or five skeletons leered at him, grinning predatorily.

“Alright,” Kai said to himself, panting heavily. He was still trying to swallow all the air he could. “Let’s see who’s better at this!” With a strangled yell he leapt for the nearest skeleton, tackling it to the ground. It grunted in shock, trying to extricate itself from Kai's clutches.

Metal clashed over and over as he dueled skeletons with a second wind. That was, of course, until Kai noticed something. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Nya. His sister, his little sister, flew through the air and thwacked a skeleton with a wooden staff. Her eyes were narrowed — glittery with anger and adrenaline. 

_She's going to get herself killed._

In desperation, he screamed across the lawn-turned-battlefield. "What — what the hell?! I thought I told you to stay back, Nya! I told you!" Kai's voice cracked at the end. "It's not safe, and—"

"Did you think I'd let you have all the fun?" Nya grinned, twirling the staff around cockily.

"This doesn't—" He struggled with a skeleton with a moment, before smacking it in the head with the flat of his blade. It fell over like a domino. "—this doesn't qualify as fun!"

"It's better than hiding and being useless. You need someone watching your back!" Nya shouted, before sprinting across the grass to block an axe with her staff, one that would have embedded itself deep into her brother's shoulder.

"Not just me, Sis." The same skeleton Nya had blocked for him was beginning to overwhelm her strength. Her body shook as she pushed back against the heavy axe. Kai shoved her aside to throw his sword through the skeleton's ribcage, shattering bones like they were twigs of a branch. She was thrown to the ground, but swiftly scrambled to her feet to defend against the attacks of yet another skeleton. Shoved into a defensive position, Nya received several worryingly deep cuts along her staff — cuts that would have been open wounds to her.

"They just keep coming," Nya yelled to her brother. The crowd held swords, spears, axes and bones high — they were a crowd around an execution, clamoring for something to break. Namely, Kai and Nya's resolve.

The two siblings were pressed back to back, functioning as a singular fighting machine. They were the rocky shore and the skeletons were the ocean, lapping up and down through low and high tide but never leaving.

"Well, this doesn't look good," Kai had acquired more scrapes, even if none of them were immediately serious. Even if a long laceration on his left forearm looked incredibly bad, the wound's function and form were similar to a paper cut. Yes, it hurt a lot, and yes, it bled a lot —  but you probably wouldn't die.

"Neither do the skeletons," Nya shot back, before detaching a skeleton's head from the rest of the body by snatching it off with her staff. She hurled it away, and smacked another skeleton in the face in the process. "They're not as tough as the stories said—" She yelped loudly, jumping back as a sword cut through where her neck had once been. "But they're still tough. Still...really tough!"

The fighting continued.

 

* * *

 

Kruncha and Nuckal slipped inside the empty shop. Spears and axes leaned against the wall, and armor sat in piles. A shiny brassy shield hung on the wall, reflective enough to be a mirror.

Nuckal tried on a helmet, admiring himself in the shield.

"You're not looking hard enough." Kruncha hurled another helmet at the helmet Nuckal had shoved on his head, knocking both of them off.

"Ow...No, you're not looking hard enough!" Shaking off the residual pain, Nuckal lunged for one of the helmets on the floor, hurling it at his frenemy so hard it made his head spin all the way around.

Instead of focusing on finding the map, they began to slap at each other, engaging in a violent catfight. Nuckal tripped and stumbled into the wall, disconnecting the landline telephone.

The handset of the phone dangled from its body, and that too swung from the telephone cable attached within the wall. The dial tone hummed softly, outshone by the sounds of the battle outside.

The missing phone had exposed a button. "Hey, a button! Let's press it!"

"Wait, what are you—"

Nuckal slammed his fist as hard as he could into the button.

Through an array of mechanical actions, the sign displaying the shop's logo and name — Four Weapons — lowered from where it was mounted. Behind the sign, attached to the back, was a piece of yellowed parchment.

"The map!" It was a map. Ancient illustrations covered its surface, some worn thin by time — and a few details missing due to some holes in the paper. The map was really, really old. Most importantly, it was the map they were looking for. It was time to go. The mission was complete.

 

* * *

 

Kai shattered the skull of the next skeleton, completely disconnecting the head from the rest of its bony body. He noticed that Nya had moved farther away, consumed in her own fight.

A shadow hovered over the battles, waiting for a good opportunity. Samukai watched as Nya and Kai drifted away from each other. _Which would be the most vulnerable? The boy._

The skeleton Kai had fought collapsed to the ground. Another appeared in its place — but with four arms. Still, four arms were just two more arms. This would be just a little bit harder, right?

Kai smirked at him smugly, raising his blade.

Samukai giggled like a teenage girl, dramatically revealing his four daggers — one for each of his bony hands. Every dagger was smooth and reflective like polished crystal, and had a miniature skull attached to the end of their handles. One edge of their blades were serrated, while the other was just incredibly sharp.

"...Oops." Kai began to back away. _This had been a bad idea._

With double the arms and a lot more fighting experience, Samukai had the upper hand. He threw himself at Kai’s heavy sword, attacking with all four of his daggers. The skeleton quickly began to force him back, as Kai didn’t have the ability to meet and return Samukai's blows quick enough. Kai snarled in annoyance, determined to stand his ground, but his feet told a different story. 

Samukai quickly grasped Kai's sword with the points of his daggers. Kai's own grasp on his sword was slick, and his hands were tired — with little resistance, Samukai plucked up the sword and hurled it away.

A foot landed in his stomach, painful to say the least, and Kai crumpled to the ground. His head hit the dirt first, forced by the heaviness of the helmet. The sword clattered to the ground a few feet behind him. Kai turned his head to the handle — it was too far away to reach. His vision spun loose, blurring as he reached for the sword anyway. Kai lay spread-eagled on the ground, flattened in part by the armor, and he couldn’t get up. _This had been a really, really bad idea._

"You're already injured, boy, this won't even be fair. Try to struggle a little bit for me, will ya?" Samukai grinned. He began to turn his daggers, spinning them around and around like the blades of a fan. Samukai considered it his signature move. The move also answered the question of what would happen if a tomato was thrown at a fan’s open blades — pretty lethal;  pretty messy. Kai could only watch in paralyzed fear as the four-armed skeleton approached, spinning its weapons so fast the air started to distort around them. 

 _Nya had to have run by now. She wasn't blind. She better have run._ "Please, Nya," Kai begged through clenched teeth, turning his head away from his approaching demise.

Samukai suddenly saw something — something bright. He paused in shock. It couldn't be. No, it couldn't be. It better not be.

An old, wizened voice cried out — stealing everyone's attention. "Ninja- _go!"_   With a golden flash of light, Samukai was thrown away from Kai. It was like the very wind had grabbed him by the shoulders and dragged him back.

Kai's garbled thoughts digested the voice. _It was the old man!_   Why was he here? Now that old guy was really going to die for sure. It would only be a few years off schedule, but still — he'd, like, totally die.

From his position on the ground, Kai saw the old man inside some sort of golden vortex —no, he remembered what that was. Twist-something. Twistitzu? Was that it? Inside the light, the old man was fighting completely normally — but at an insanely fast pace, at an unparalleled level of skill. To Kai's eyes, all of his moves were utter perfection. The old man leapt back, the vortex dissipating into sparkles.

"Sensei Wu?" Samukai shook off the feeling of dizziness. Spinjitzu had always, always given him motion sickness. If Samukai had still been alive, he might have slid down to his knees and thrown up. "...your spinjitzu looks rusty." Of course the old fool would show up now of all times, interrupting the first fun thing he'd done in ages.

"Nothing like bone to sharpen its edge, _Samukai._ " Sensei Wu glared at the skeleton. He and all four of his arms were supposed to be stuck in the Underworld, not terrorizing villages and killing teenagers.

It wasn't as if Samukai couldn't fight the Sensei, because he could. In the past, he definitely had. But Samukai didn't want to deal with him and his moralizing right now. _How do I get out of this?_ He thought, incensed, trying to find a quick solution.

The four-armed skeleton looked towards Kai, who was struggling to move. Samukai's face twisted into a wicked grin. His eyes darted to the water tower, which shook unsteadily. The nearby battles had taken their toll on the old building's stability. It was now unsteady — waiting to fall, even — water lapping over the top edge and trickling down the side.

Samukai looked at his knives, seeing his red-eyed reflection in their pristine surface. Although they had seen countless battles, none of the blades had a single scratch. 

He had not once been leader of this skeleton army for nothing. He had ascended the chain of command by knocking others off of it. He was ruthless, smiling as he watched them fall. 

In his mind's eye he saw the daggers flying fast, sticking the landing one by one into the leg of the water tower — adding just enough weight to bring it crashing down. The shadow of the water tower laid upon Kai, who wasn't getting up any time soon. The heavy armor had virtually chained him to the ground. _It would be painful,_ Samukai's subconscious whispered sweetly. _It would be very, very painful._ That was good enough.

"Looks like you've got someone defenseless over there, Wu. Are you going to be a hero or not? You're getting pretty old...your choice. You've got to stop risking your health like this, _Sensei._ " Samukai's mocking formality was full of acidic hatred. The daggers left his grasp, whistling through the air. 


	3. Nothing Left For Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> all alone at the end of the evening

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shorter chapter by the way, not an almost 5k behemoth. thank you dreamworks+over+disney and lucariosfish for the fantastic comments! they were very inspiring and nice to read. since this is following the pilot plot, you know what's coming :^)
> 
> edited for clarity, flow, and em dashes 12/8/19

Samukai's bitter laughter echoed in Sensei Wu's ears. He saw the skeleton hurl his daggers, too far away to stop him. They passed by like the bolt of a crossbow or the shadow of a hawk. The blades were sharp — sharp enough to rend flesh from bone, and experienced enough in the act of doing it. He knew that well enough.

One by one — as if Samukai's imagination had been projected into reality — the daggers embedded into the left leg of the water tower, several inches deep. The wood splintered, and the leg started to buckle.

The water tower trembled and started to pitch forward. The corrugated tin top began to slide off the rest of the tower. Water escaped from the bucket on top, splattering loudly on the ground. The metal bolts keeping the whole thing together started to bend too far, cracking.

Kai saw it coming through his swirling vision. _Get out of here!_ His natural instincts and desire to avoid a painful death screamed at him loudly. He struggled, pushing back against the ground, boots scraping on cobblestones, his back grinding across the path a few inches. However, Kai did not have the strength to stand and run.

"Oh...oh no..." he choked out, watching the water tower teeter forward. It seemed Death wasn't satisfied with Kai's fateful escape from Samukai. The Grim Reaper wanted its lunch, plus the pudding cup.

The brittle wooden leg splintered, before snapping completely in two — a clean fracture. The tower buckled, with a painful creaking noise. The barrel on the top, which acted as its tank, rolled off. The framework and supports that made up the rest of the tower quickly collapsed. 

The barrel, the at least half a ton barrel _without_ water, would hit Kai directly. _If he did nothing._

_He would have to be fast. Very, very fast. First step, second step. Leap into the air, and twist around. What was it they used to say back then? Jump up, kick back, whip around, and spin. That was it._

Sensei Wu had just enough time. He spun around and the golden vortex reappeared. Within it the Sensei seemed to fly across the ground, swiftly approaching Kai. His eyes loosely traced the nearing glint. Sensei Wu scooped up Kai a moment before the water tower fell with a thundering crash. 

The barrel of the tower shattered into planks and shards of wood. Dust and smoke bloomed in the air, obscuring the wreckage. Water had gathered around the broken body of the tower, bleeding out onto the ground. The water tower was very much dead.

Samukai grinned toothily. "Perhaps he didn't get to save that kid," he muttered, taking a few steps forward, cracking bits of debris below his stride. His eyes searched hopefully for a limp outstretched hand or an irrecoverably dented helmet. While the skeleton leader had no ears, being a skeleton, he still had a sharp sense of hearing. He listened, tilting his head — searching for sobbing or pained whimpering. If Samukai saw the kid's little sister wailing hysterically like a lost toddler in a store, that would be fantastic. Hurling rubble aside to get to her brother, her hands getting redder and collecting splinters with every thrown plywood plank? That would be _delicious._

The particulates in the air began to settle. Samukai got close enough to the wreckage to see that nothing had happened. In the distance, two figures were at least sort of alive. One beginning to stand in a conical hat, and the other still pinned down by that ridiculous armor. "Damn it!" If Samukai had something to throw in anger, he would have done it. However, the things that he had thrown earlier — his daggers — had not done the job. Bending down, over the wreckage, he retrieved his weapons. Samukai pulled them from the wooden heap in disgust.

After collecting his daggers, he turned away. The stupid old man had saved the kid, instead of trying to get the map back. "Idiot," he hissed. Samukai headed for his waiting truck.

 

* * *

 

 _Savior,_ Kai thought. He would have said something if he was capable. He stared up into the face of the old man  — a Sensei, Sensei something he couldn't recall. His hat was askew, and his eyes looked relieved  — probably because he hadn't witnessed Kai die tragically for the second time in five minutes. Was he really an old man? People that were old didn't have those abilities. Or maybe a young guy pretending to be old for some reason? Everything and anything was on the table at this point.

Samukai was back in the cab of his truck, impatiently tapping his bony hands on the steering wheel. Kruncha and Nuckal were eagerly waiting for orders. From his perch, he looked down on Sensei Wu and Kai, who honestly looked pretty pathetic together  — the Sensei trying to get Kai off the ground. Suddenly, Samukai remembered something. Something he had to do.

_Oh, yes. Finally something fun._

"Lord Garmadon says...take the girl!" Samukai laughed and eagerly pointed Nya out to Kruncha who was manning the claw. His dagger gestured toward her back, which was turned. She was battling a lone skeleton, beating it ruthlessly over the head. A lengthy system of cracks spiderwebbed across its skull. Through this Nya was completely distracted, focusing only on the enemy directly in front of her. 

_Lord Garmadon?_

Immediately Sensei Wu was standing on a rocky outcropping. The pale, sandy stone was weak and crumbling. He stared across the stone to a man corrupted by darkness  — someone he had to face. _The light,_ whispered the breeze. _The light is threatened._ For a moment, his blood froze completely solid. Then he was back, standing next to the kid  — Kai.

The bony hand launched into the air, wrapping itself around Nya. She screamed in fear, the skeleton she had been fighting gazing at her in vapid confusion. As she was dragged from the ground, her grip tightened on her staff  — the only thing she could hold. Her eyes clenched shut, fear running wild in her mind. Her legs tightened, and her feet dug into the dirt. For a moment the claw resisted Nya. For a moment it paused, struggling against her will.

"Nya!" Kai called out desperately. Her head whipped around to stare at her brother in panic. 

"Kai?!" _What had happened to him?_ He looked beaten to say the least. Kai was looking up from the ground, on all fours with his knees trembling, breathing like it was a challenge. An old man  — that old man  — stood beside him, trying to get him up.

Her will broke with her worry. She soared through the air into the clutches of the skeletons, leaving trails in the dirt where she had once been. Two footprints left a deep mark where she had hunkered down, and then the trail changed to a soft brushstroke  — ending where she had been dragged away from the earth.

She screamed, loud. Nya breathed in and out, beginning to hyperventilate. Her eyes flared, and she violently threw herself back and forth, trying to escape the claw's grip. She screamed again noticing a skeleton standing next to her, looking at her curiously. The skeleton, which was Kruncha, laughed at her.

They all drove away quickly, speeding back over the hill. The skeletons  — at least the ones that weren't bones and powder on the ground  — disappeared, taking Nya with them. 

Samukai's laughter echoed loudly, louder than all the vehicles. Through the hills and valleys, through the ruined farms and through the shop surrounded by skeleton bones, his laughter chased Kai like an angry wasp. There was no screen door to quickly slam shut. There was nothing he could do.

_I am supposed to protect her. She's my little sister, and I have to get her back._

But he had to try.

Kai took a few steps forward, entering into an awkward sprint. His armor cut into his sides and slapped against the back of his neck. After only a few seconds of running, a feeling of dizziness overtook him. Kai made a gurgling, choking noise as he lurched forward drunkenly. His legs locked and he fell, rolling to the ground, gasping for air. His ears were ringing loudly, and his vision was buzzing, full with millions of little dots. Kai stared at the dirt, feeling deeply sick. In the distance, there was the faint rumble of overpowered engines, and that horrible, horrible laugh.

"They  — they took...Nya..." His entire body slumped down, flattening in defeat. He couldn’t even manage to stand. 

 

* * *

 

"I told you. Useless!" His name was Sensei Wu. Kai now remembered that. It was even more infuriating now that he had remembered it. The Sensei's staff clanked against his helmet, and the noise hurt his soul. Kai was still laying on the ground. The old man had walked up to him.

"Y...you could have done something! Your, you know, your twistitzu or whatever —"

"Spinjitzu." He interrupted calmly, too calmly, before letting Kai continue.

The pain in Kai's body dissolved into anger. His wounds were the solute and the solvent was rage. The gashes on his arms that were still bleeding, the grisly bruises that were developing across his body, the dull soreness from the armor's plating rubbing against his skin  — all of it turned into blazing fury. Gasoline trickled onto the fire, and his temper flared. The respect he had for the man  — which he had for about a minute  — burnt away in the heat.

"But you did nothing. Absolutely..." Kai inhaled, holding his breath and begging for his fury to pass. The old man was the only way to find his sister, if he even cared. He couldn't offend him  —  at least not a lot. Cursing out the old guy was counterintuitive. "...nothing to help. I'm gonna go get my sister back. Do whatever the hell you want." Kai finally managed to stand back up, swaying like a leaf in the wind. 

Sensei Wu didn't seem to care that Kai was angry at all, shrugging off the venom in his last sentence. "Where they go, a mortal cannot. That skeleton was Samukai  — the King of the Underworld. And if Samukai is carrying out orders for Lord Garmadon, things are far worse than I had ever thought."

"Lord Garmadon? Underworld?! What  — what's going on? What's so important to them about us?!” Kai shook his head in dissent. His voice heightened in both volume and pitch. “You know what...I don't even care. Where's my sister, since you know so much about all of this?!"

"I can't tell you where your sister has gone, Kai. I truly don't know. But what I can tell you is the importance of —" Kai ignored Sensei Wu addressing him by his name. He didn't particularly care at all right now. The wail of his sister as she was torn away from the ground repeated over and over in his mind. His heart had begun to hurt. He had let his sister be taken. He had failed to protect her as he had always, always promised.

Kai swiftly cut off Sensei Wu. The one thing that mattered was Nya  — nothing else. "Please, come on, just tell me how I can get Nya back. There has to  — there has to be something. And whatever it is, it better help me. I'll...I'll do anything." His voice broke off into a sharp, pained inhalation. Kai sank to the ground again, sliding down against a large boulder.

His face screwed up and his eyes squinted tightly, almost like Kai was preventing himself from crying. His face flushed a warm shade of red, and his eyes watered slightly. Kai blinked a few times, before brushing away the dampness with a thumb. He let out a strangled breath. Kai was listening to the Sensei now  — listening intently.

"If Lord Garmadon has returned, or anything close to it, then a lot more is at stake. Everything in Ninjago itself is in grave danger." Wu's voice hardened as he spoke.

"But _why?_ I've never even heard of this guy until his friends up and kidnapped Nya! What does the rest of Ninjago have to do with me, or her, or even you? What matters so much?"

"There is a lot people no longer know, Kai. Things have been lost to time. Let me tell you a story," Sensei Wu said cryptically, motioning for Kai to quiet.

Kai quieted, settling in against the cool stone of the rock as the Sensei began to speak  — laying out a world set in beige antiquity.


	4. Departure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the road is calling, so pick up the phone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i return with another chapter. thanks for keeping up! as well, thanks for the two more fantastic comments (slowly but surely the plot moves forward.)
> 
> edited for clarity, flow, and em dashes 12/8/19

A long time ago, a lone man stood in the middle of nothing. He bent down, lowering his hands to his knees, waiting. When he finally raised his arms, mountain ranges erupted from the ground. Hills and valleys splashed up and down like the sea against a rugged coastline. Throwing his hands back, he summoned trees from the nonexistence. The trees grew tall and leafy, their leaves shades of vivid crimson and vibrant green. Birds settled on the branches. He leapt up, feet leaving the ground entirely. When he landed, a rolling sea of grass burst out across the emptiness.

"Before time had a name, Ninjago was created by the First Spinjitzu Master, by using the Four Weapons of Spinjitzu."

He closed his eyes, focusing, sketching thin clouds into existence. A cerulean blue sky in the day, a velvety black sky at night. A swathe of stars, identical to flecks of glittery mica in a stone. The moon, pale as white eggshell — and the sun, blinding as the brightest light.

"The four weapons were the Scythe of Quakes, the Nunchucks of Lightning, the Shurikens of Ice and the Sword of Fire — weapons so powerful, no one could handle all of their power at once."

They were cast from what looked like pure gold and were said to gleam brighter than even the sun. The sword was imbued with enough fire to burn down a forest to ash and charred stumps. A polished ruby sat at the hilt of the sword. Then, there was the scythe, which was strong enough to rend mountains from their ranges. A shiny bead of polished onyx was inlaid on the dull edge of the scythe's blade. There were also nunchucks that bent the very lightning into a tool — glittering sapphires hid in the eyes of the twin dragons engraved upon the weapon. Then, finally, there were the twin shurikens. They emanated the feeling of an impending blizzard — the rainlike smell, the frigid wind. They could also freeze a person completely solid. On each shuriken was three small crystals of aquamarine.

The four weapons were pristinely beautiful in form, and deadly in function.

"When he passed away, his two sons swore to protect them, but the oldest was consumed by darkness and wanted to possess them."

Suddenly across from him was a face contorted with darkness. A toothy smirk stretched across the man's dark and corrupted face. His brother was gone — completely evil. He would fight him to protect the world. The two stood across from each other — on the flattened, sandy peak of a mountain. They leapt for each others' throats.

"A battle between brothers broke out and the oldest was struck down and banished to the Underworld."

One blow struck too hard, his legs slamming into his brother's chest. His dark, midnight eyes widened in shock. He stumbled backward and careened off of the side — arms outstretched and reaching for the edge of the stone. The other brother fell to his knees, sliding to the edge, watching in horror and grief. He saw his brother fall, screaming. With a violent flash of lightning, he disappeared into the darkness.

"Peace returned and the younger brother hid the weapons, but knowing his older brother's relentless ambition for power..."

The flowers bloomed and the trees grew tall as he meditated, in a place of calm. For many years, he hoped, Ninjago would have peace. He had made that sacrifice in order for the farms to grow their crops tall, and for that bustling village on the coast to eventually grow into the largest city on the continent. He would try his best to act as a protector for the land until he no longer could.

"...he placed a guardian to protect them."

Four dragons stared at him, their glowing eyes searching him for any malevolent intent. He had asked them to help protect the weapons, in order to protect the people of Ninjago. It had been a long journey to find them, trekking through deserts and arctic tundra. The dragons agreed. He waved farewell to them as they flew off, each with a weapon in tow. One of the dragons took up the golden scythe in its maw, making its way to a faraway mountain range. It fell into a deep slumber within a hidden, forgotten cave.

"And for fear of his own demise, a map for an honest man to hide."

He walked up to the blacksmith one day, the man staring at him in recognition. In his hands was the map he had created by candlelight a night before — the ink was still drying on the paper. This spot, in an isolated area many miles from the now built up city, would be safe. He knew he could trust the man running the blacksmith shop — there was history. The blacksmith nodded with a quick smile, taking the map from his hands.

 _And now,_ Sensei Wu thought, returning to the present, _we are here. I had thought this would never happen_ — _at least for a very long time._

 

* * *

 

His story finished, the Sensei paused. He waited for a second, allowing Kai to compartmentalize all the details.

"That honest man was your father, Kai. The older brother is Lord Garmadon, and I need to find those weapons before he does."

"So...you're the younger brother?! That means you were looking for that map —that map the skeletons took." Kai stood from where he had been slouching against the rock, waiting expectantly for an answer.

"...yes and no. Since my brother cannot enter this realm, at least for now, Samukai is acting as his proxy. At least I would hope. However, if he were to return and claim all four weapons for himself, there would be nothing I could do to stop him. But I wasn't here for the map — actually, I was here for you."

"Me?!" Kai gaped at him in disbelief. "Why would you want me? I can't even fight off skeletons, let alone anything else." He shook his head, quickly becoming distracted within his own mind. Kai kicked a pebble, watching it bounce across the ground.

When he looked back up, Sensei Wu was staring at him — his eyes cool and serious. "You have the fire inside, Kai. You've got a blazing spirit. I will train you to harness it — to use it. To become a Spinjitzu master."

"Uh...what? Are you kidding?" An uncomfortable smile appeared on Kai's face. _This guy's crazy. I need to find my sister, not go off and do...whatever it is he wants._ "Look, I'm flattered. I really am." Kai walked over, limping, to retrieve his sword. It lay abandoned, still in the same spot Samukai had thrown it. "It's nice that you think I'm all that, but I've gotta save my sister! I'm not interested in your sibling rivalry."

Starting to walk away from the Sensei, Kai made a few practice swipes in the air — dueling an invisible skeleton. After the fourth swipe, a sharp pain shot through the whole of his arm, and he let the weapon fall with a whimper. The sword fell to the dusty soil, forgotten in lieu of clutching his arm in pain. 

Then, he heard something. _Turn around! Now!_ Kai's instincts came too late.

Sensei Wu flew through the air, staff aimed diagonally — hitting smack dab in the middle of Kai's chest. It clunked against the armor. Kai fell flat to the ground with a thud. He grimaced, grinding his teeth together with a hiss. "Ow..." Pain returned quickly from where it had been hiding, crashing over him like a wave. Looking up, Kai saw the Sensei standing on top of him, staff resting on the very top of his helmet. _What fresh hell is this!?_

"As I thought — clunky. I am sorry for hurting you, Kai, but if you cannot block a single strike from me, you will be unable to rescue your sister. If you want to get your sister back, you must control your fire. Only when you become a Spinjitzu master will you be able to face Lord Garmadon — and find Nya. Because if he wanted her, he probably already has her." Sensei Wu looked reproachful for a moment, even sympathetic.

"Lord Garmadon," Kai muttered to himself, contemplatively. _Why do I have to fight all these nutjobs? Can't anyone else do it?_ A more threatening thought suddenly came to mind. "Do — do you think he'd do anything...to hurt her? Do you think he'd hurt Nya?" As Kai stared back up at Sensei Wu, his face paled slightly. His wide eyes begged for the answer to be no.

"I don't know." Sensei Wu said bluntly.

"Okay. I...okay." Kai was quiet for a second, thinking. Deciding. _I guess I'm jumping into this, then._ "Fine. When do we start?"

"Now. If we leave now, we will arrive at where we need to be in due time."

"What do you mean now—"

He nimbly jumped off of Kai."Do you need a hand?"

"I think I'm fine." Kai groaned, grumbling under his breath. He rolled to his side from where he had previously been flat on his back. As he pushed himself up to a standing position, he saw that Sensei Wu was already walking away.

"Hey! Where are you going?! I've just been in a big battle, uh — I...I'm hurt! Bleeding! Dying! Something like that!"

Kai's pleas garnered no response.

"Can't we rest for — oh, I don't know — five minutes!"

Kai begrudgingly started to follow after him, but he couldn’t catch up. Sensei Wu was just too fast. It wasn't even that he was fast — just that the Sensei wasn’t weighed down by what felt like a few tons of armor. 

"You won't need that where we’re going, you know," He finally called to Kai after a little while, noticing his struggles.

Kai stopped. He sighed again. Leaving the path, he approached a tree. Standing in the comforting shadow of its branches, he untied the helmet from his head. It slid off, falling to the grassy ground. Next, he slipped off the armor itself, dropping it down next to the tree's thick trunk. Bending down, he picked up the helmet and set it on top of the armor. From far enough away, it could be a person sitting under there — not just an empty exoskeleton.

Sensei Wu paused, curiously observing Kai abandon the armor. It looked more like Kai was making a shrine with the armor, rather than just leaving it to the elements. 

As he walked away, Kai couldn't help but feel that the armor was indeed a person — and that the person was watching his every move. He made his way away from the blacksmith, the only home he'd ever known. It grew smaller and smaller fading into the distance. All he could see at this point was a reddish blob, blending with the faraway treetops. Out of the corner of his eye, he could almost see himself and Nya, young and laughing, chasing each other in the intermittent shade of the red maples. But no, that was just a mirage. A reflection in a dusty, forgotten mirror. Something gone and broken.

Was the empty armor judging him for leaving and losing his sister? Or was it applauding him for going on an adventure to get her back? It didn't matter. Good or bad, right or wrong, _he would find her._

 _Nya. I'm going to get her back_ — _no matter what._ That was the drumbeat that drove his footsteps, his breathing — even his heart. _I'll take on the world and more to save her._

Kai's eyes narrowed, glaring at the sun and the sky. Exhaustion and heat beat at his mind. However, more than anything, he was angry. Furious. The pain, heat, and exhaustion had taken the form of a pounding headache —but he didn't care. His stride thundered in his ears; his nails dug into his palms within clenched fists. 

“That’s all that matters,” he muttered. “I’ll push through anything.” 

Kai's feet brushed up against a stray bone. It had to have fallen off of one of the vehicles when they left. He raised his boot, before smashing his heel into the middle of the bone — watching it shatter. Shatter like cracking an egg into a pan, shatter like pushing over a priceless marble statue onto the floor. A thin, tight smile stretched across his face. Chalky residue remained on the bottom of Kai's right boot, even as he left the broken bone behind him. 

Sensei Wu noticed Kai finally beginning to catch up, his armor gone. Kai's movements were faster, and his head was held higher — even if the expression on his face was pained and only somewhat lucid. A smile flitted across the Sensei's face before disappearing. 

 _Fire,_ Sensei Wu thought in satisfaction. _He does have the fire inside._


	5. Free Climbing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> don't look down - you did, didn't you. i told you not to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hold on, what's the date? the summer sluggishness got a diamond sword with sharpness, thusly no new chapters in i think more than a month. however i have read lore olympus (not writing) and played minecraft (not writing) but more stuff coming soon, in hopefully less than a month. i've got APs to deal with, but hey, everyone does their summer work on the last week of august lol. 
> 
> IGNORE ALL THAT. TLDR: NEW CHAPTER LONG TIME SORRY (might be posting some oneshots to compensate)
> 
> edited for clarity, flow, and em dashes 12/8/19

The two of them had walked for a while. Anything familiar to Kai had disappeared hours before. This area of the world was completely foreign — even if it still looked similar to his home. Kai's feelings had merged into a gray, chilly, and strangely comfortable depression. Sort of like a rainy day when there's nothing to do but watch from the window, as droplets slither down the glass. It wasn't comfortable in the sense that Kai liked it, no — but instead that the feeling made sense. He accepted it. 

His pain, as well, was omnipresent, but he felt that he deserved it. 

Kai stared, uninterested, into the landscape. His gaze darted from hills to valleys to thin rivers. Normally, it would have been a beautiful day. The temperature was just right and the wind was loose and warm. Clouds floated in the sky like bolls of cotton. But for Kai, the world faded into black and white. No pretty details could change a thing.

 _Nya._ Like the bass line in a song, the thought was always there. _My sister._ It had quickly turned into an obsession. _My sister was taken, and I am going to get her back._

Every few minutes Kai looked back to the path, to make sure that he was keeping up with Sensei Wu. He was always there, just a little bit ahead — giving Kai his needed space.

In time, an imposing mountain range started to emerge from the blurry distance — a digital picture from a smeary watercolor. Trees were thick around the bases of the mountains, maples and birches eventually thinning out to spiky pines. Higher up, there weren't any trees. Only dots of moss and hardy grasses could grow at that elevation. At the greatest extreme, there was only ice and snow.

The Sensei stopped, allowing Kai to walk to his side. He pointed out the mountains with his staff, gesturing to the tallest mountain — its peak was obscured by gauzy clouds.

"That's where we need to go. It's at that mountain — the greatest mountain in the whole range. They're called the Mountains of Impossible Height. Because, well — you can see, can't you, Kai?"

"Yeah. They're...big."

Whatever _it_ had been went right over Kai's head. They returned to the monotonous walk. Footstep after footstep, the two slowly made their way closer to the mountains — and whatever else was there waiting for them.

That had been hours ago. The sun had still been in the sky. It had still been early afternoon, with light trickling through leafy branches to dapple the ground.

Now, the campfire crackled quietly. The sun was completely absent, instead replaced by the moon as the sky's crown jewel. Kai stared drowsily into the flames of the fire. Exhaustion and ashy smoke bit at his eyes, but he didn't dare to close them. He couldn't sleep. He didn't want to sleep. It was an even mix of both.

Soreness was present through Kai's entire body. Long straps of fabric wrapped around his limbs, stained with shades of red. Sensei Wu had somehow had bandages and had treated Kai's wounds. That was one less thing to worry about. The bleeding had stemmed.

So, apart from the soreness, the only concerning things were the bruises. They had started to metamorphose into mottled splatters of purple and yellow. Kai didn't know what kind of pain indicated a fracture. Nya probably would since she was smart like that, but then again he'd let her be kidnapped by skeletons.

All of a sudden, Kai felt like curling into a ball and crying. Just because he wanted to, though, didn't mean he would. He had to be strong — at least, look strong. He would have to become stronger. That was the only way. 

Kai was laying flat on his back, staring up at the stars. A sudden gust blew the wood smoke in his direction for a few seconds. Instead of bothering to close his eyes, he just squinted.

Sensei Wu was comfortably asleep. Across from Kai, on the other side of the campfire, he dozed quietly.

Kai, on the other hand, was not comfortable and definitely not asleep. Every time he thought to close his eyes, Nya was immediately there. So he kept them open, tiredly connecting the tiny little dots in the sky. Unfortunately, the stars all started to connect in a dot to dot of skeletons.

So he rolled over, deciding to stare at the campfire instead. But eventually, it betrayed him — skeletons again, hiding in the shadows cast by the firelight.

With a groan he pushed himself up to sit, legs extended. He faced away from the campfire, instead looking at the trees. However, the branches of the trees in time started to resemble bony hands, which led to skeletons once again.

The night passed, slow as molasses. A single second was an hour. Every time Kai started to fall asleep, head nodding down — he thought of skeletons. Or Nya. Or something related to the two like that mysterious Lord Garmadon. What a guy, kidnapping someone’s sister for no reason. Kai would immediately perk back up, head jerking back and eyes flicking wide open.

Eventually, he got tired enough that it looked like he could easily fall into a comatose state. Kai stared at nothing, glassy-eyed and statuesque. But he was awake by a slim margin, unable to sleep. In the black edges of his visions, wraith-like skeletons haunted him. 

Sometime later — an eternity for Kai — the sun began to rise again. Had it only been a day since Nya had been taken from him? Had a whole night just passed? It felt like a lot longer.

Kai broke from his stupor. The campfire was completely burnt out, smoking. The coals still glowed softly.

The sun, a vivid orange, poked its head above the horizon. The dark sky was immediately a mix of spring pastels — pink and blue and red. The stars in the night were just crumbs on a cakeplate as they faded away into the early morning.

Maple trees were interspersed with papery birches. It all looked like gold in the early morning sun. Crumpled leaves gathered around trunks and in grassy patches. In the distance, the looming mountains stood tall.

"Did you sleep well?"

Sensei Wu was already standing, leaning on his staff. His hat was perfectly aligned on his head.

Kai couldn't find the motivation to answer verbally. He responded with a low groan, standing and shaking the exhaustion from his limbs. The residual pins and needles faded away after a few minutes, his circulation returning to its full capacity.

"Nevertheless, we have to keep going if we want to get there soon. Maybe then you will allow yourself to rest. You will need to sleep at some point."

Exhaustion was a noose, tight around his neck. It was choking him. Maybe it would drag him into the air, legs swinging disjointedly. This line of thought was not a helpful one.

 _Nya,_ Kai reminded himself. _This will help get her back._

So, they continued to walk. Kai had a strange desire to nap by the roadside, but he ignored it. Whatever was in the mountains was going to help him get his sister back. He repeated that in his head as a motivating mantra.

The sun rose in the sky. Kai refused to pause, refused to rest. He was even more tired than the day before — at least he was in less pain.

The mountains grew closer.

Around noon the surrounding forest began to shift, maples and birches transitioning to a needled wall of pine trees. The dirt path grew steeper, now an upward climb.

Then, finally, they were met with the base of the peaks. A flat stone plain met with harsh rock that jutted up almost endlessly into the sky. That was what formed the mountain range. At the very top, snow painted the jagged peaks bright white.

Kai craned his neck, his eyes wide as he scanned the vast landform. The mountain range looked big enough to split the whole of Ninjago in two. It was grand, tall, and thick. Slim passes between the individual mountains were heavy with feathery grasses and boulders. The range seemed to be both smooth and rugged at the same time, glistening with sunlight. The whole thing was incredibly pretty. For a moment, the scenery forcibly dragged Kai from his overcast combo of exhaustion and depression.

"Wow..." he muttered, trying to think of something to say. "That's a lot of mountains."

 

* * *

 

The one thing that you weren't supposed to do when you were up high was look down. Whether you were on top of a roof or climbing a large mountain, you were not supposed to look down.

His hands were worn red, the skin close to splitting at some points. Clutching onto the rock, tight around the handholds, Kai looked down. The pines formed a dense green carpet over the land. He could see rivers and lakes reflecting in the sunlight, their water like molten metal. He could see plains, and farms, and the small villages surrounding the farms. Cutting through all of it was the highway — the two-lane road straight to Ninjago City. Kai had convinced himself that if he squinted, he could see the tiniest bit of glittery glass from the faraway tall skyscrapers. 

He swung his head back to the mountainside. His arms shuddered and his face reddened as he started to push himself up to the top of the ledge. His feet scraped against the smooth side, dislodging pebbles before finally finding new footholds. Kai’s hands clutched tightly to the edge of the ledge as he shoved himself up and over the side. He collapsed after he made it up, stretching out on his back like a cat. He panted, gasping for air, his lungs hungry for sustenance.

Once he felt like he'd taken a long enough breather, Kai stood up again. From sudden vertigo, his legs gave out and stumbled forward. His entire body fell forward, hands raking through gravelly soil as he skidded towards the ledge he had just gotten up over. He came to a stop at the very edge. Rocks knocked loose by his body fell, clattering a few times, before disappearing altogether. At some point, they hit the ground, miles and miles down. He swallowed nervously.

Sensei Wu was again ahead of him, but this time not by much. They were climbing a mountain after all. "The air's starting to get thinner," he yelled to Kai. "We should stop soon to rest and adjust. This also means we're getting close, though."

 _Close? We're finally getting close?_ Kai would have complained if he wasn't again out of breath.

Kai heaved his complaining body over a few more ledges and outcroppings, all the while worried about falling off and becoming a pancake. He watched in disbelief as Sensei Wu threw himself from rock to rock with spiderlike agility. Kai followed as best as he could, far less gracefully. The Sensei leapt over a several-foot wide gap with ease, before waving at Kai to come forward.

"After this, there's a path. Now you just have to jump."

The word echoed in his mind like the strike of a gong. _Jump. Jump?_

"Jump?! Are you...are you kidding me? I can't make that—"

"Just jump, Kai!"

Sensei Wu waited expectantly. He raised his eyebrows, staring directly at Kai.

Kai groaned, covering his face with his hands for a moment. 

He needed to be stronger than shying away from little gaps in the mountainside. A long jump was not his most threatening enemy. The decision was made. 

"If I die, it's on you!" Kai yelled back, only half joking. He backed up from the breach, counting his footsteps. Staring at the other side, he lowered into a crouch. His eyes narrowed into slits — absolute concentration. His brown irises were steaming espresso, no cream.

Kai sprang forward, rocky dust flying into the air. He sprinted with abandon towards the gap. The edge came up fast, and then with all the strength in his body, he threw himself forward.

There was nothing beneath him except for a long drop and his feet. He looked down. The height was sickening, dizzying — like gazing down an endless flight of stairs. His legs swung beneath him, and his arms stretched forward to reach for the other edge of the gap. His view returned to Sensei Wu, who had started to back up.

Suddenly, he collided with ground again. Kai landed on his side, sliding for a distance in the dirt and gravel. 

_I'm not dead?_

He looked up from the ground to see a hand waiting for him, outstretched. Sensei Wu helped him up.

"Kai...it gets a lot easier from here."

Around the corner was the beginning of something fantastic. Something amazing. Stairs were carved into the mountain.

"Stairs? Aw, this is the first time I've ever been happy to see stairs!" Kai laughed to himself, caught up in the thrill and lingering adrenaline. He had just jumped over a gap in a mountain that could have killed him. Now he had stairs. Stairs, instead of climbing up the side of a mountain and struggling up steep stony hills.

Still, he did need that precious air that was becoming pretty thin at this point. Hands on his knees, Kai focused on his breathing. In and out, in and out.

After about a minute, he started to climb the stairs. Sensei Wu was already far ahead. From here, it was like Kai could see the whole of Ninjago. Clouds passed by below him, and he could see the shadows they cast on the ground below. Stair after stair after stair, and without a guardrail. The stone stairs were smooth like glass, many years of wind and rain having taken their toll. 

Slowly, the crest of a building emerged at the very top of the stairwell. With every stair Kai climbed, more of the building was visible. Dark slate shingles, with a traditional build — nothing new by any chance. The walls were wooden and sturdy, painted a soft shade of creamy eggshell. Crimson banners, hanging from the edges of the building's various towers, flew tautly in the wind.

Then, suddenly, Kai was there — standing at the doors. Wood painted red that was slightly flaking, and impossibly shiny brass handles. It was all sort of overwhelming. Kai flopped down on the flat stone, sitting and reclining. He found that he was again short of breath. It was really, really thin up here. He felt giddy.

"So...How long is training gonna be?" Sensei Wu was fiddling with something in a pocket, but he was also listening. "Aren't we in a bit of a rush since they have Nya and the map? And whatever else they have?"

Sensei Wu paused, thinking. "Patience. All in due time. However, we should go inside. The air's very thin here, it will be better inside." He fished out a key from his pocket, one attached to a bright crimson ribbon. The key had an intricate, looping engraving on its head.

Kai stood, feeling immediately lightheaded. "Huh."

Sensei Wu unlocked the doors of the building. They creaked open slowly, revealing an empty courtyard. He and Kai walked in side by side. Going through the doors, Kai almost fell over. His ears popped, and he stumbled to the inside wall for support, gasping. He clutched a wooden beam with a white-knuckled grip, gritting his teeth. The world was spinning, a high-pitched squeal loud in his ears.

"You'll be fine. It's just the air. Here, it's not thin."

"What do you mean it's not thin — it's the same height, why wouldn't it be—" Kai sucked in a breath of air, rich and full. No longer thin. Whole milk, not 2%. Within moments, Kai returned to his full mental and aerobic capacity.

"What — what? What's with this place?"

Sensei Wu smirked. It was a strange expression to see on such a figure. "It's always been like this," he said mildly.

"But — but why?"

"That is for me to know, and for you to find out — no. For me to know."

Kai was silent except for a noise of annoyance, one that rumbled through his throat like a growl. He looked around and realized something. His neutral face split into a tight smile of annoyance.

"This...this is a monastery. I'm going to learn how to fight in a place of peace? That's not right at all."

Sensei Wu shook his head. "Not fight, but train. In order to become a true ninja, first you must be able to see what others do not."

"But there's nothing here!"

The Sensei had made his way towards a shiny, golden dragon statue that sat to the side of the entrance, on top of a wooden pole. He stared at it for a moment, before nudging the statue backward. As it tilted back, a slot opened, revealing a modern red button.

Kai stared at it, perplexed. This was a monastery! Monasteries weren't supposed to have buttons and electricity. They were supposed to be lacking in all that for spiritual development, or something. 

Sensei Wu pressed the button in. It made a sharp clicking noise. The monastery's courtyard immediately reacted, with the grinding of gears and other advanced machinery. The large dragon statue in the center rose up, and with it, an entire outdoor training area. This wasn't any little training area, though. No bulk buys or bargain brands. All the equipment was authentically classical, golden peaks and red roofs, homemade and hand-forged, out of what seemed to be the same materials as the monastery. 

Real swords and axes gleamed in the sun. Obstacle courses with worn wooden figures loomed in the back. Flat wooden poles shot up from the seemingly innocent cobblestones. In an instant, the monastery, the place of peace, had turned into a place of war.

Or as Sensei Wu had put it, a place of training.


	6. Aftershocks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> time passes, and he's trying his best, he really is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry about the great lapse of time between updates, being beaten over the head with school. fortunately the break is coming up, i'm getting back into writing things as well, and so i plan to get things going again as best i can. my goal is to take this in a more mature and entertaining way without going completely over the top. i accept constructive criticism and suggestions as i said before, please tell me if you see a typo! 
> 
> my goal is to allow characters to be more fleshed out and struggle more with their shown and implied issues. the defeats you don't see behind the victories, the internal clashes. there will be violence, awkwardness (fitting of the teenagers they are), and tension. evil characters will act evil, and good characters will actually show the sliding scale of gray that morality really is. no battle is black and white.
> 
> the pilot is 44 minutes but chronologically it's a great deal of time that takes place during them. there's a ton of opportunities for things to be fleshed out within the pilot, the needed context for all the character development that occurs in that whirlwind of time, and i intend to use all that to the best of my ability. also, if you're super squeamish you may have some issues: i'm not going to shy away from blood and generally more hard and difficult things, but know i'm writing like that purposefully, not just for the hell of it. there is a great difference between violence that fits an expanded, aged-up scope, and violence for the sake of violence. that's not to say i don't like writing fights. 
> 
> also i just realized that em dashes exist :^)
> 
> TLDR: not abandoning this!

Kai had realized, after a few hours, that the overall architectural style of the monastery was remarkably similar to his own village. The outside of the monastery was made up wholly of painted wood and a stone foundation, while the inside was more diverse. Maybe half of the inner monastery had exposed wooden support beams and paper walls — the paper was thick and translucent, instead of being ridiculously thin like Kai had originally expected. The oldest parts of the monastery, which tended to be closer to the main gate, were made completely out of wood. 

The blacksmith’s shop had the same roof style, albeit with sloppier construction. His village, which was a mile or two away from the shop, could have been built around the monastery; it wouldn’t have looked one lick out of place. The whole village, while possessing some modern accouterments, was otherwise plucked right out of antiquity. 

Small homes, built hundreds of years ago and with the inability to support electricity or satellite, made up the majority of the village. Larger and newer buildings, such as the few stores, the school, and the governmental buildings, managed to support electricity — but had nothing in the way of communications other than the phone line. Faded posters in the village square reminded the population that tending to the rice was their duty as a citizen of Ninjago. They all got the news from the weekly paper, and their mail from the postman. It had been this way for a long, long time. 

Kai had remembered looking at pictures of Ninjago City when he was younger, wondering if one day he would be able to go there. Out there, in the provinces, it was everyone’s dream to make it in the big city; to live in one of those glittering buildings. They were called skyscrapers. Of course, Kai had never actually made it to the city. He had taken on the mantle that his ancestors handed down to him. What mattered out here was rice, and the iron tools used to farm the crop. They were, after all, feeding the country. 

He snapped out of the bittersweet memories, looking to the door of the small bedroom Sensei Wu had led him to. 

The room’s door was old and wooden, with a slightly tarnished brassy doorknob. It didn’t lock, but it did open inward. A free-standing mirror taller than him leaned in one of the corners of the room, with a cherry wood frame and golden accents inlaid on its sides.

Other than the mirror, there was a bed with pillows, a cabinet, and a chair. Other than those pieces of furniture, the room was empty.

Coming up to the mirror in the corner, Kai stared at his face. He was well-tanned, and at this point sunburnt. A noticeable nick along his cheekbone, the one that skeleton had given him, was fading into a permanent scar. Earlier, he had sunken into a bath — there had been a tub and faucets in the bedroom’s attached bathroom. For a place like this to have running and heated water, so isolated from any other bit of civilization, was surprising. Kai wasn’t complaining, though.

The dust, sweat, and blood had melted off in the water. His exhaustion and physical pain had faded into the warmth. His hair was still dripping down his back — the water and soap had done nothing to calm the spikes.

A plurality of the wounds he had acquired during the skeleton raid had already completely healed. Sensei Wu had informed him, after Kai finally staggered off from training, that the monastery had an innate ability to hasten the body’s healing and recovery.

Kai had watched in wonder as his raw-rubbed hands had completely healed over. Even the bigger, more worrisome injuries were healing fast. He had replaced his bandages after the bath, tightly securing the gauze, using antibiotic cream, making sure the cuts were washed out well. Kai did actually know how to dress a wound by himself, as long as he had everything for it. A farmer had accidentally ripped their own arm open with a scythe, and had collapsed in the rice fields from blood loss. He had dragged the farmer from the stagnant water, cleaned the bloody mess as well as possible, and patched the older man up. Some things were just necessary knowledge, especially when there were no emergency services for hundreds of miles. 

However, it wasn’t as if he was completely healed. It wasn’t as if he was in no pain at all — he was still in a great deal of it, actually. Kai had thrown himself into training with everything he possibly had, and earned a new score of mottled bruises. Training, this first day, had been a complete and utter disaster. He inwardly cringed even starting to think about it. 

As all bad memories do, though, the whole thing began to play in his head — whether he wanted it to or not. 

Kai had walked into the monastery already tired, sad, and beaten. Standing there, surrounded by the mountain range and the monastery’s calm silence, he finally managed to ground himself. Things looked like they could start to be on the up and up. Admittedly, the bar for that was incredibly low.  

When the Sensei had revealed the monastery’s great secret, and all the training machines appeared from nothing, Kai had been struck with a feeling he couldn’t completely comprehend. It was like he was meant to run to them; to challenge them; to wring out all of their finicky secrets. 

As soon as the line of red-rimmed wooden poles had burst up from the floor, he had leapt onto the one in the center. Kai balanced on one leg, in what he thought was a threatening pose. His arms were stretched up and out like a dragon’s wings.  

“Is this gonna teach me how to do that cool move?” Sensei Wu didn’t answer, instead looking incredibly conflicted. The pole started to lower into the ground with a grinding noise, and Kai stared down at it in confusion. 

Sensei Wu stepped back, looking worried. “Oh, dear,” he said to himself. Kai barely heard that come out before he went flying. 

The pole launched him into the air, several feet up, and Kai smacked right into a hollow golden dragon statue sitting on top of another machine. He bounced off of the ledge right below the statue, before falling back to the ground with a loud thump — face down. 

He whimpered, his body refusing to move. Pain that he had managed to shove back into a dark corner returned in full force. 

When Kai worked up the will to open his eyes and focus on something other than the new pain he had just been graciously gifted, he found himself laying in front of the monastery’s main doors. They were twin paper doors. Sensei Wu was sitting in front of the doors, a full tea set out in front of him — napkin on his lap, with a teapot and a cup of sugar cubes to the side. 

He watched dazedly as the Sensei poured himself a cup of tea and plopped a few cubes in it. Sensei Wu stirred the tea with a metal spoon, tapping it against the side of the pastel blue porcelain cup afterward. 

“Complete the training course before I finish my tea — and then we will see if you are ready.” Kai watched Sensei Wu drink the entire cup of tea in a single, long slurp. He then set it aside with a light clink on the wood of the deck.

“Today you failed. Tomorrow you will try again.”

It took a moment for the words to register. “Failed? I didn’t even start—”

“Patience.” Sensei Wu had already closed the main door of the monastery and left Kai alone — he had even left his teapot behind. His last word floated on the air. 

Kai had laid there for a little more, organizing his thoughts. Then he pushed himself up, brushed himself off, and walked to where he had seen a spare wooden training sword, leaning against a railing. The weapon was just sitting there, almost calling to him. 

Picking up the sword in his right hand, he could almost physically feel a strange tingling warmth run through him. He held it out, looking at the craftsmanship, tilting the dulled and splintering blade with a noticeable crack side to side. 

Then, with no hesitation or sense of self-preservation, and with the wooden sword as his only companion, Kai ran into the gauntlet. 

He was beaten, he was battered, and he was thrown around — almost managing to rip through one of the monastery’s paper walls. He was smacked right in the face by a wooden dummy’s arm. Through all of this, Kai still managed to get back up. 

Of course, his effort wasn’t enough. Kai didn’t want the painful struggle, he wanted the end result — posthaste. As of now, Kai couldn’t even manage to get past the first main obstacle of the course, simply because he was just too slow. The armed wooden dummies coming at him tripped him and threw him off even after he had memorized their movement patterns and weapons. His brain simply couldn’t communicate with the rest of his body quick enough. 

Echoing in Kai’s mind was a harsh judgment — that he wasn’t good enough. 

Again, Kai stumbled, and was shoved roughly in the side by a dull-tipped wooden spear. He flew sprawling into the dusty cobblestones of the monastery’s courtyard. 

At this rate, Sensei Wu would need to have a lot of patience. 

 

* * *

 

"Patience," Kai muttered ruefully, still staring into the dusty mirror. Coming back from his thoughts, Kai shook his head in disgust and turned away. He was the last person he wanted to see.  "I've failed at a lot of stuff, you know — why would you expect me to succeed at anything?" The laugh that slipped from his mouth was bitter. His face held shadows in every corner, and his eyes were dark and exhausted. While his words were not completely serious, they did hold some true sentiment.

In the background, faint behind the walls, was the aromatic hiss of sesame oil. A comfortable blanket of heavy spices drifted in under the door and through the paper walls. Meat, vegetables, rice, spices. Other unidentifiable things were there, under the savory category — Kai was not the cooking type. At least, not cooking things that were more complicated than three ingredients. 

Sensei Wu, approximately half an hour ago, had interrupted Kai's brutal self-criticism session with "I am making dinner, you need to eat. I will call you when it is finished." Before Kai could even mutter a distracted thank you, the Sensei was gone, back up the hallway. He had shut the door with the grace of a young scholar, rather than with the uncoordinated movements of an elder. Other than that intrusion, the Sensei had respected his privacy.

Kai turned back to the mirror. It showed crystal clear the exhaustion plain on his face ever since he had staggered out of the courtyard, collapsed onto the floor, and crawled into the warm water of the bath. 

Sensei Wu knocked on the door, before opening it.

Kai turned from the mirror to him. “Dinner is done,” The Sensei said placidly, and left the door open. The smell of cooked food flowed in, and it smelled good.

The two of them sat together in the kitchen in silence, at the traditional low table. Sensei Wu filled Kai’s bowl heaping high with rice, vegetables, and meat that smelled like some sort of culinary genius cooked them. Bright peppers, glassy onions, mushrooms, some unidentifiable green vegetables, strips of beef. He then poured Kai a cup of steaming, freshly-steeped tea and set it down next to the bowl. 

“You must eat, no matter what you feel inside,” Sensei Wu said, and finally placed a pair of chopsticks beside the bowl, on the opposite side to the tea. 

Through the wide window of the kitchen that offered a view of the sky — it stared right off the edge of the mountain — Kai watched the sun set. A bright orange ball stained the satiny clouds shades of pink and red. It wasn’t all that bad of a view. 

Kai looked to Sensei Wu, words on the tip of his tongue. He felt like saying something incredibly angst-ridden, but held it back. Instead, he looked to the heaping bowl below him, and nodded. The bowl was dark blue porcelain, and had a pattern of tiny white flowers.

“I understand that what you need to do right now is to settle your own thoughts.” Sensei Wu sat facing him on the other side of the table with his own bowl, as well as the entire teapot that he had retrieved from outside. During the quiet, awkward dinner, the Sensei managed to down about four cups of tea. 

Kai picked at his food with a feeling of slight nausea, but finally forced himself to eat. He was hungry. He had not eaten in some time. Kai took up a balanced mix of rice and a few bell pepper slices — upon trying it, he found that it tasted incredibly good. 

“Yes...thank you, Sensei.” Kai finished the whole bowl, and washed it in the sink, leaving it to dry. He sipped at the now lukewarm cup of tea. Out of the window, the world was now completely dark. The kitchen was cast a shade of soft, warm yellow — through both electric lights and a kerosene barn lantern. 

Kai returned to the small, spare bedroom that was — at least for now — his. He brushed his teeth, and changed into a set of light pajamas that sat waiting for him folded on the bed. 

He pulled back the sheets of the bed, slipped in, and curled into the blanket. The lone window of the room was cracked open a slice, allowing for just enough of the cold mountain breeze to blow inside. In a matter of minutes, Kai fell asleep. 

 

* * *

  
  
In the middle of the night, he hears his sister scream. 

Kai is ripped from sleep, and throws himself out of the bed, lunging for the door, and throwing it open — he tears down the hallway at a sprint.

A shiny, light katana is mounted on the wall, and he snags it in a single move. The blade hovers on the air like a bird hovers on updrafts. 

Kai burst into the monastery’s courtyard, throwing the main doors open, his head turning wide to find the origin of the noise. The first thing he sees is his sister standing in the moonlight, in that same red dress. The gold dragon print on the fabric is entwined like chains.  
  
“Kai!” she gets out, voice tinged panic and fear. Her hands reach out to him in desperation. A bony hand settles tightly around her waist, digging into her skin with knifelike phalanges. She retracts, shrinking under the cold touch. 

The second thing he sees is the skeleton, hiding in the shadows cast by the various training equipment. The red, glowing eyes cannot hide in the darkness, though — they shine brighter than any fire.

 _So the skeletons have returned to taunt me,_ Kai thinks.

One day, through any and all means, he’s going to make sure all these skeletons stay dead. He will cremate the bones and scatter them somewhere isolated at the end of the world. Holding the sword with conviction, Kai leapt forward into battle — and choked. Another skeleton has appeared, its arms locking around his neck. The grip tightens until he can barely breathe. The katana slips from his hands and instead Kai scratches at the skeleton’s bony hands, shredding his own trying to free himself.

The skeleton holding Nya moves both of its hands up to her wrists, and digs into her skin with its clawlike fingers.

“Follow my lead, and it’ll all be peachy keen for you,” the skeleton rattles languidly. 

Nya can’t do anything. She sees the skeleton’s scabbard, and the sword within it. She sees Kai out of the corner of her eye, struggling.

The skeleton steps out of the shadows, leading her in some sort of ballroom dance, pressing close to her. She’s on the verge of crying. 

They twirl around the courtyard, slowly, with precise steps — the skeleton’s bony fingers bite into her wrists, and draw blood when she stumbles. Tears bead at the edges of her eyes, falling down her face and neck, dotting the collar of her dress with slick salty moisture. 

Kai can’t do anything. He kicks at the skeleton, struggling, trying his best to break free but to no avail. Kai is in a small bony prison. His captor laughs, breaking into giggles.

Nya trips over her own feet and rips free of the skeleton’s grasp, leaving scratches along her arms, crashing to the ground.

She looks up at the skeleton with fire and fury, trying her best to get up. Nya had landed hard on her back. Her legs are tangled up in her skirt and her arms are behind her. Her head throbs with a newfound pain.

The skeleton looks down at her, she who is painted in anger and the silver of the moon, and pauses. 

The skeleton pulls out a long, tapered sword from its scabbard, in a practiced fluid motion. Its blade is made from some unidentifiable bone, curved like a scimitar. A worn serrated edge glints in the night, made of carved points of bone plated with steel. The sword’s guard, hilt, and pommel are all bone too, chalky white and glistening. 

“You’ve got a nice sister, you know. I might just have to take her with me.” The skeleton stares directly at Kai, ember red eyes drilling into his head.

His hearing suddenly fails and all he can hear is ringing. In silence, he watches the skeleton take a few steps forward and raise its blade above its head dramatically. Kai can’t do anything. He struggles violently, yelling and screaming and crying in anger — but the skeleton is like a vice. 

An arcing strike of heat lightning, the sword falls down upon her. The blade’s toothy steel serrations glitter dimly. Kai turns his head away and flattens, squeezing his eyes shut. He only hears the ringing, which is louder than ever. 

Kai opens his eyes as soon as he can stand to, in squinting little slits. His view falls slowly down from the sky to see her in the middle of a growing puddle. The liquid is shiny like a tar pit and runny like paint. The liquid is maroon and garnet in the night, and he knows just how glossy, candy, cherry red it would be in the day. 

A neat little line, like a ruby necklace, traces across her throat. Rivulets pour from the line. Droplets bead at the edges of her lips. 

The other skeleton tightens its grip around his neck even more. He cannot breathe at this point, but his fighting spirit is absent — he does not struggle. Kai drifts, welcoming the blackness at the corners of his vision. The last thing he allows himself to see and process are the glassy eyes of his little sister, staring up blankly at the starry sky.

When the darkness comes rushing in, he doesn’t fight back. He drowns in it. 

 

* * *

 

Kai gasped, sucking in air. He shot straight up, hyperventilating, violently kicking off the sheets. He thrashed around blindly for a few seconds and rolled out of the bed with a thump. 

A ceiling fan turned slowly, blades creaking. Moonlight lit the room softly through the window's blinds. He hadn’t noticed that fan before. 

The window, which Kai had previously cracked open a slice, had been shut again, but he didn’t notice.

On his back on the floor, Kai watched the ceiling fan turn for a while. His entire body was drenched with cold sweat. 

"What is wrong with me." he said to himself. Kai couldn’t form any other words. For a solid minute he felt like bawling, but dug his nails so hard into his palms that it wouldn’t have surprised him if he started bleeding.

Kai stood up and left the room. He tiptoed through the main hallway of the monastery, quietly pushing aside the sliding door and slipping outside. All was quiet in the night. There was no training equipment up, no skeletons, and no Nya. There was no blood — nothing at all out of the ordinary.

Kai was alone with only the stars, the moon, and the wind, and Sensei Wu.

 _It was a dream,_ he reassured himself. _It was only a dream._

“I’m not going to be weak. I’m not going to be weak at all. I’m going to be strong, and I’m doing to get you back.” He gazed at the sky for a moment, and hoped Nya could hear him. 

It was strange how quiet it was. Even in the blacksmith’s shop, which was a decent distance from the village, there had been noises. People on the night shift to watch the rice, the swish of the rice stalks in a languid breeze, even the crickets. But here, on the mountaintop, at this very moment, there was nothing at all. It was unsettling. 

Kai shrugged, and returned to his room.

After some deeply haunting thoughts, he fell into a dreamless sleep. 

 

* * *

  
  
"Jeez, this new guy's a nutcase," someone hissed in the darkness. 

Someone else responded back. "I know, right?" 

“Couldn’t there be a chance of underlying stressors in—” a third voice tried to say something intelligent, but they were quickly cut off.

“He’s a nutcase,” the first voice insisted, ending the conversation. 

 

* * *

 

The next day, Kai woke up just before the sunrise. He was early enough to walk out into complete darkness. He picked up the wooden sword from where he had left it, and again hurled himself with reckless abandon into the arena. As soon as the sun peeked over the horizon, Kai was lost in the thrall of combat.

The next day after that went similarly. The day after that, too — and multiple days afterward. 

Sensei Wu watched Kai closely, even if Kai himself didn’t notice. Kai was consumed in training and his own thoughts. Sensei Wu almost looked impressed by how much effort Kai was putting in, but one could never truly tell what the Sensei was thinking. 

A week to the day his life had fallen apart, Kai woke up with a strange new presence in his mind. Determination had sharpened into a hard metal point. It would be fitting if he could finally beat that challenge the old man — no, his Sensei — had set for him. Kai had been getting better, muscle memory and developing skill helping him through. 

Sometimes success was so close he could almost touch it. Kai had never been close enough to actually touch it. This cold morning, he felt as if he would be able to. 

Kai opened the rice paper door gently. He strode through the doorway with an air of confidence, pausing to stare down the courtyard. The equipment, the walls, the floor, the sky. Flails dangled like threatening wind chimes while the wooden dummies watched his approach. The wooden line of moving poles was an imposing wall. 

“Never again,” he muttered darkly, and cast a furtive glance towards the spot where the skeleton had been standing in his mind. 

He retrieved his sword, and took a few quick practice swipes at the air. Kai threw the sword up, let it spin, and caught it again with ease. As if he was facing an enemy, Kai pointed the blade forwards at the training arena.

Sensei Wu sat down on the stoop with his tea set, and adjusted his hat to shield his eyes better from the dawn’s light.


End file.
